Love is at the center of MCS’ annual Service Day

By Ryan Adams | Midland Christian School student

Published
5:21 pm CDT, Sunday, April 26, 2015

Midland Christian 10th graders tear down an old picnic table as part of the work on a Christmas in Action house project Wednesday, 4-22-15, as part of the schools Day of Service. Tim Fischer\Reporter-Telegram

Midland Christian 10th graders tear down an old picnic table as part of the work on a Christmas in Action house project Wednesday, 4-22-15, as part of the schools Day of Service. Tim Fischer\Reporter-Telegram

Photo: Tim Fischer

Photo: Tim Fischer

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Midland Christian 10th graders tear down an old picnic table as part of the work on a Christmas in Action house project Wednesday, 4-22-15, as part of the schools Day of Service. Tim Fischer\Reporter-Telegram

Midland Christian 10th graders tear down an old picnic table as part of the work on a Christmas in Action house project Wednesday, 4-22-15, as part of the schools Day of Service. Tim Fischer\Reporter-Telegram

Photo: Tim Fischer

Love is at the center of MCS’ annual Service Day

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My favorite pair of shorts rests quietly at the rear of my closet for special occasions, particularly one day every spring. They are older, decorated with paint splotches here and there from different times in the past. Nonetheless, I always excitedly pull them out when this spring day arrives. It’s Midland Christian School’s Service Day.

For the last five years, I have been blessed with the opportunity to take part in Service Day, along with the entire junior high and high school student body. This day is always highly anticipated for so many different, beautiful reasons. Really, if you asked students, they would each give you a different response as to why they adore this specific day above any other one.

Service Day is a schoolwide activity that occurs sometime in April or May of every school year. School administration seeks to use this day as an opportunity for students to learn something about serving others. Whenever you have to give up something to bless others, you in turn are blessed as well. For this reason, the day is built into the school calendar as opposed to holding it on a weekend or at some other time. Buses are loaded and cars are filled as we head into the surrounding community to various places to accomplish respectively unique tasks. Work groups are arranged by Bible class, and the Bible teachers select the projects with help from the Campus Ministry. Service Day holds such special favor among both students and faculty because it is a chance to vacate the classrooms and be a blessing in the community.

In just completing our Service Day for the 2014-15 school year, I asked around for people to describe this experience in one word. Responses came in, and I was floored by the similar anthem each of them had: humbling, opportunity, blessing, love. These are just a few from the list. But, truly, love is at the center of what we get to do on this day. We have learned around school that no matter how many houses we paint, no matter how many bags of trash we collect, no matter if we are able to feed every hungry body in this entire county, without the presence of love written into the tapestry of each of these acts, we have merely accomplished philanthropic-type work.

Midland Christian has taught her students that love is the most important thing. Sure, Service Day is a day to complete acts of service of varying degree, but it is most importantly a chance to remind some of the groups and causes within this community how much they are loved -- loved not only by the citizens they help or are supported by, but also by the God of the universe. God makes it very clear to us that it does not matter how good a life we live, how lawful we choose to conduct ourselves or how much our righteousness may abound. If these things are not done in love, through love and because of the love we have in Jesus, then it all becomes meaningless fluff.

So, to me, Service Day is more than just a bunch of trash bags, more than just some paintbrushes and paint buckets, even more than the number of hours that are put in altogether. It is all about the lady whose house just received a fresh coat of paint, the faithful workers who got to go home earlier than normal because their work was lightened by the help of 20-something students, the bright children who felt like royalty because a band of teens took sincere interest in each of their lives. Love is such a wonderful thing that accomplishes so many great things in our world today. Love sums up what service is and why it is important, because service is what happens when we decide to share the love of Jesus with the world.